Scalfari and the Pope: A farce that has to end

Riccardo Cascioli

La Nuova Bussola Italiana

March 30, 2018

The Pope who denies the existence of Hell. A thing
of such magnitude that was then spread by newspapers throughout the world for
hours and hours before the Holy See issued a denial of Eugenio Scalfari’s words.Yet some things don’t quite add up in the Press Office’s communiqué...

What must a poor Catholic think, when connecting
to Internet on Holy Thursday morning he finds that the Pope has told an old journalist
friend that hell doesn’t exist and that the souls who don’t repent simply disappear?
A Pope who denies two truths of the Faith: Hell and the immortality of the
soul. It cannot be, it has never
happened in the history of the Church. And right at the beginning of the
Paschal Triduum, when we relive the Sacrifice of Our Lord, Who came to save us
from sin. Diabolical timing. If Hell doesn’t exist neither does salvation. It matters
little that it is not a magisterial text and that it’s the ‘usual’ article by
the founder of the Repubblica, Eugenio Scalfari, who transcribed the sense of a
conversation with Pope Francis at Santa Marta. The statement is of unprecedented
magnitude and devastating consequences.

It can’t be, it just
can’t be that the Pope thinks this: and even less so that he says it so
lightheartedly in a conversation with a journalist who everyone knows has the
habit of transcribing his conversations with the Pope, and that the Holy See
has twice contradicted (even if always leaving many doubts). Yet from the
Vatican: silence.Silence despite the
fact that from early morning several journalists had asked immediately for clarification from those in charge at the Press Office.

The hours pass by
and the news spreads round the world: “The Pope denies the existence of Hell”.
Equivalent to saying that the Church for two thousand years has been having us
on, [indeed] has been making a fool of a lot of people. The Catechism of the Catholic Church, no. 1035
says: “The teaching of the
Church affirms the existence of hell and its eternity. Immediately after death
the souls of those who die in a state of mortal sin descend into hell, where
they suffer the punishments of hell, "eternal fire." The
chief punishment of hell is eternal separation from God, in whom alone man can
possess the life and happiness for which he was created and for which he longs.”

If
this truth can be denied or be up for debate, why could the same not be done
with all the other truths of the Faith? Why believe in the Most Holy Trinity,
or God as Creator, or the Incarnation? The fallout from such a statement is
devastating; it means denying the very function of the Church. It is just not
possible that a Pope could say a thing of such magnitude. Yet the hours
continue to pass by and still nothing from the Vatican, despite the asphyxiating
pressure from the journalists.

Finally,
just after 15.00 the Press Office deigned to give out a communiqué which issued
a denial of Scalfari’s words:

“The Holy Father recently received
the founder of the newspaper La Repubblica in a private
meeting on the occasion of Easter, without, however, granting him an interview.
What is reported by the author in today’s article is the fruit of his
reconstruction, in which the precise words uttered by the Pope are not cited.
No quotations in the aforementioned article, then, should be considered as a
faithful transcription of the words of the Holy Father.”

A great sigh of
relief. Indeed, the Pope could never have declared a thing of
such magnitude with such blitheness. Yet… yet something doesn’t quite add up.
Nine hours to deny a clamorous heresy attributed to the Pope: it beggars belief,
a thing that would merit the firing en bloc of all those responsible for
Vatican communications.

And
then there’s the content of the denial, which is absolutely inadequate
seeing the gravity of the matter. They don’t say that Scalfari invented
everything, as someone hastened to write. The statements are very prudent
indeed, not to mention ambiguous:

1.They
say that the meeting with the Pope and Scalfari did take place but was not conceived
as an interview. Of course, but apart from the first time, all of Scalfari’s
meetings with Francis were private conversations that promptly ended up on the
pages of La Repubblica. One could then take it for granted that also this time
it was the same.

2.
What was written in La Repubblica, according to the Press Office, is not invented
but a “reconstruction” but simply “they are not the exact words of the Pope” . If the Italian [language is not a matter of opinion, it
means nonetheless that the subject was discussed and something of that sort was
said - in any case, it is specified that the words were not faithfully
transcribed.

3.We
should remember that on the previous occasions when the Press Office had to
intervene to contradict Scalfari’s articles, the then spokesman Father Lombardi
had specified that the transcript was not faithful, but that it reported “the
sense and spirit of the conversation”.

Not only that, it is not
even the first time Scalfari attributes the Pope with this notion on Hell.

On October 9th of last year, in fact, he wrote: “Pope Francis – I repeat – has abolished
the places of eternal residence in the Afterlife of souls. The thesis he
sustains is that souls dominated by evil and the non-repentant cease to exist, while
those who have been redeemed from evil will be taken up to bliss and
contemplation of God.”